Despite widespread protests from residents, directors of a La Crescenta water agency said this week that they will not lower a 138% increase in sewer fees imposed last fall. Hundreds of residents had signed petitions and have protested at meetings since directors of the Crescenta Valley County Water District raised bimonthly sewer charges in September for single-family houses from $16.80 to $40.

At Rosemont Junior High School in La Crescenta, getting students who have sprained an ankle or are suffering an asthma attack to the health office from the hillside playing fields, three ramp levels down, is not easy. Now, thanks to the recent donation of a wheelchair from a Glendale hospital, it will be a lot easier. School health clerk Cynthia Pageler said Rosemont had a 25-year-old wheelchair, but could not afford to buy a new one, which costs about $1,500.

The best team in the major leagues last year calls Oakland home. And the city may be home to the nation's top Babe Ruth team as well. On Friday night in Carson City, Nev., a team from Oakland swept a doubleheader from La Crescenta to win the Babe Ruth Western Regional and advance to the World Series this week in Jamestown, N.Y. The team of 13-year-olds from La Crescenta had entered the contest from the winners' bracket and needed just one victory to advance to the World Series.

Glendale city officials will seek more public input about a hotly contested proposal to install a concrete median in the middle of Foothill Boulevard in La Crescenta in an effort to gauge whether the project should be abandoned. The Glendale City Council, which ultimately will decide whether the median is built, will hold a community meeting to discuss the project at 7 p.m. Monday.

Police issued a warning Thursday about an intruder who poses as a window washer and then robs elderly women in La Crescenta, Montrose and Glendale. His most recent victim, a 79-year-old woman, told police that she was the victim of burglary and had been sexually battered Wednesday. The man has entered at least 50 homes, sometimes by force, in the last three years, according to police. Authorities have been unable to determine the value of property lost.

Students at Monte Vista Elementary School in La Crescenta received a special lesson from the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday on how to sow their personal fields of dreams. Catcher Mike Piazza, first baseman Eric Karros, pitchers Todd Worrell, Rudy Seanez and Todd Williams, and longtime bullpen coach Mark Cresse visited the school to deliver a motivational message: Stay focused on goals and don't give up. "I'm sure all of you like to go out and play.

From her home in the high reaches of La Crescenta, Jackie Genofile watched last week as hillsides so recently denuded by fire, and so ripe for collapse, bore the new insult of rain. County officials had cleared debris basins at the foot of canyons. Residents had rigged sandbag-and-chipboard contraptions to block a slide, like burglar bars against nature's intrusion. All that was left was to wait. "Everyone was pretty panicky," Jackie said. "I was a little concerned. I kept waiting and saying, 'OK, if it gets rough, I'll just get in the car and leave.

A 22-year-old motorist was killed Tuesday morning on the Foothill Freeway after a wrong-way driver crashed head-on into his car, authorities said. Charles K. Bandaki, 50, was driving a 1977 Ford east in the westbound lanes of the Foothill Freeway near Lincoln Avenue when it collided with a 1995 Honda, killing its lone occupant, said California Highway Patrol Officer Frank Sansone. Michael John Sartinsky, of La Crescenta, died at the scene.